PhD student studying neurodivergent culture and the neoliberal standard of ‘normal’ within universities. Neurodivergent, pan, sea enjoyer, lady-in-waiting to Astrid and Fin the cats. Belle and Sebastian fan, 6music Dad. Tangata Tiriti in-progress.
![When the school decided to implement a schoolwide Positive Behavior
Supports discipline system to reduce the high rates of discipline referrals and suspensions, a schoolwide token system was used as a motivator to provide Positive Behavioral Supports. Here, the implicit assumption was that bad behavior is an individual choice and has no social history. Wendy discussed the use of "Wayne Dollars"-tokens given to students as rewards for making good choices. Unfortunately, the value placed on Wayne Dollars by the students in Wendy's former school did not manifest itself in a positive way. Students who were unable to earn the Wayne Dollars because of discipline problems resorted to alternative methods of acquiring them. Wendy noted that the Wayne Dollars thus began to circulate within
a counter-economy:
Yeah, that was within the first 3 months of implementation. We had Wayne Dollars and then-(laughs) and then it was funny because... the [public] library that was down the hill from the school, it was having a problem because kids were trying to counterfeit them using the (copy machine].... And then the police were about to arrest some kids for playing craps and they thought it was real money and it was fake, you know, it's the Wayne Dollars. And then another funny story about that first, like, 6 months of implementation at Wayne.... There was a kid who was able to sell a Wayne Dollar for a real dollar and, like, we were trying to explain to [the kids, "Wait a minute.... Don't sive away real money for Wayne (Dollars)!"But, it showed you.... to the point of how much they valued those dollars (laughs) that they would give up real money. And, then, we're talking about the poorest kids in the city, you know....](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2ybjzobgtjxdagrdnqsj2sqn/bafkreibnohhut75273w6i5qtg5zhbujmh4bmmlhd5nihczivesuu5fs34i)
PhD student studying neurodivergent culture and the neoliberal standard of ‘normal’ within universities. Neurodivergent, pan, sea enjoyer, lady-in-waiting to Astrid and Fin the cats. Belle and Sebastian fan, 6music Dad. Tangata Tiriti in-progress.